Joel Schalit

Dubstep Democracy

With the exception of albums such as Kode 9 and the Spaceape’s Memories of the Future, and Dusk and Blackdown’s Margins Music, dubstep is not known to be political. Reflective of its contexts, like Burial’s debut, certainly, but a protest idiom, like punk, well, no.

Recast as a soundtrack to an anti-government demo, it starts to make more sense. Not that Skream was hired to DJ the event. Nonetheless, this unintentional collage, of a protest flyer, pasted over a gig poster, makes us hear British politics a bit differently.

Soho, March 10th.

National Brand Strategy

Secularism has become the hallmark of contemporary British culture. Well, let’s say certain segments: Educated, white, Anglo-Saxon, formerly Protestant, etc.

When God is dead, what purposes do such admonitions constructively serve? To discourage religious relations with political authority? With the market?

Camden and Hoxton. London, January 2010.

Crisis Couture

The political economy of hair. Notting Hill, 03/02.

David the Gardener

Weeding would have tempered his ruthlessness. Ladbroke Grove, 02/24.

Alone in the Crowd

Witnessing to shoppers. Central London, early Friday evening.

Shield Your Eyes

Burka + political narrative. Ladbroke Grove, 01/20.

Public Service Announcement

Lamppost agitprop. Edgware Road, Monday evening, January 17th.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Editing the US edition of Martin Bull’s Banksy: Location and Tours when we first moved to London in 2008, I imagined the work of the controversial street artist to be posted, as it seemed to Bull, practically everywhere. Much to my surprise, two trips to the fabled Hoxton/Shoreditch area yielded nothing.

Strolling through Brick Lane yesterday, I found two Banksy pieces, the same prints pasted in different parts of the neighborhood. Having seen Exit Through the Giftshop recently, I couldn’t help but be suspicious. As though the repetition was intended to mess with Banksy-snapping tourists, like me.

As Seen on TV

East London bus stop. Saturday, January 15th.

Fragments of Berlin

As much as I miss Berlin, spending the last six weeks in London has had its advantages. Perspective being the main thing. Hard at work on an essay about German identity politics, I’ve had to come to terms with how profoundly living in Germany these past eight months has effected me.

Visiting London’s Imperial War Museum last October, I encountered this fragment of the Berlin Wall. I wondered if it was an ironic embodiment of a distance I was looking for then. The kind that frees you up to start writing, that relieves you from feeling overwhelmed by your subject matter.